Category: NCAA Basketball

Nate Johnson hit a short pull-up jumper with two seconds left and top-seeded Akron rallied from 18 points down to beat Miami (OH) 76-74 Saturday night for a second-straight Mid-American Conference Tournament championship and second-straight berth in the NCAA Tournament. The victory also gave Akron coach John Groce his fourth win in five meetings over his 10-years-younger half-brother, Akron coach Travis Steele. Akron clawed back to cut its deficit to 12 at the break.

Akron's Nate Johnson hit a game-winning layup in the final two seconds to beat the RedHawks and send the Zips dancing.

Watch Tre Donaldson's end-to-end rush to send Michigan basketball to Big Ten tourney final in Indianapolis on Saturday, March 15, 2025.

The pied piper of college basketball rebuilds, Rick Pitino has St. John's back atop the Big East. RJ Luis Jr. scored all but two of his 29 points after halftime and No. 6 St. John's made 14 straight shots from the field in the second half to beat Creighton 82-66 on Saturday night for its first Big East Tournament title in 25 years. “Wow, this is incredible just to come from last year to this year and to see the transformation,” Luis said.

Houston had crowded onto the podium inside T-Mobile Center on Saturday night, and the second-ranked Cougars were beginning to celebrate their Big 12 Tournament title, when Emanuel Sharp was handed a championship belt as the tourney MVP. It was just about the only obvious misstep that anyone from Houston made all week. Milos Uzan poured in 25 points against Arizona in the finale, Sharp added 17 in another brilliant effort, and the Cougars turned up their trademark defense in the final minute to hold on for a 72-64 victory over the Big 12 newcomer.

Tre Donaldson made the drive of his life on Saturday, going the length of the floor for a buzzer-beating layup to send No. 22 Michigan into the Big Ten Tournament title game. Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr. never got his chance. In less than three hours, two games in Indianapolis came down, literally, to the final play. Donaldson's magical moment will go down as an instant classic in Michigan lore.

"We're thinking about one thing right now, that's beat Wisconsin," said Rubin Jones. "We're playing for a championship, that's what we came here for."

Tionna Lidge scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds — the senior's first career double-double — to help No. 1 seed Southern beat Alcorn State 64-44 on Saturday night to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament. DaKiyah Sanders and Soniyah Reed also scored 11 points apiece for Southern.

Is Auburn still the No. 1 overall seed? Is North Carolina in or out? Here are the key questions facing the committee before the NCAA selection show on Sunday.

Top-ranked Duke and the Atlantic Coast Conference have informed the NCAA Tournament selection committee that freshman Cooper Flagg will be available for March Madness, NCAA senior vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt said Saturday. Gavitt made the comments on CBS in the lead-up to Sunday's announcement of the field of 68 teams. Flagg sprained his left ankle during Duke's win against Georgia Tech on Thursday in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

The 2025 NCAA tournament bracket is taking shape ahead of Selection Sunday.

Jalen Haynes had 22 points to lead George Mason to a 74-64 victory over Saint Joseph's in an Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament semifinal on Saturday. The second-seeded Patriots will play No. 1 seed VCU in the title game on Sunday with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament up for grabs. George Mason is aiming for its first tournament championship since joining the conference in 2013.

Haggerty, the AAC player of the year, put the Tigers (28-5) ahead to stay with two free throws that made it 72-71 with 40 seconds left. He finished with 18 points.

Auburn won this tournament last year only to wind up a No. 4 seed when the selection committee announced the NCAA Tournament bracket. Auburn lost to Yale in the first round.

Duke headlines the hoops hierarchy on the 2025 recruiting trail as March Madness ramps up.